November 19, 2010

Posted by Andy Towle on towleroad.com:

"The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued
new rules for Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals stemming
from a memo issued by President Obama this spring. Read the memo HERE.

"According to a release from the Department of Health and Human Services:

'The new rules follow from an April 15, 2010 Presidential Memorandum, in
which President Obama tasked HHS with developing standards for
Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals (including critical
access hospitals) that would require them to respect the right of all
patients to choose who may visit them when they are an inpatient of a
hospital. The President’s memorandum instructed HHS to develop rules
that would prohibit hospitals from denying visitation privileges on the
basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual
orientation, gender identity, or disability. It also directed that the
rules take into account the need for a hospital to restrict visitation
in medically appropriate circumstances.

'The rules require hospitals to have
written policies and procedures detailing patients’ visitation rights,
as well as the circumstances under which the hospitals may restrict
patient access to visitors based on reasonable clinical needs.

'A key provision of the rules specifies
that all visitors chosen by the patient (or his or her representative)
must be able to enjoy 'full and equal' visitation privileges consistent
with the wishes of the patient (or his or her representative).

'The rules update the Conditions of
Participation (CoPs), which are the health and safety standards all
Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals and critical access
hospitals must meet, and are applicable to all patients of those
hospitals regardless of payer source.

'Among other things, the rules impose new
requirements on hospitals to explain to all patients their right to
choose who may visit them during their inpatient stay, regardless of
whether the visitor is a family member, a spouse, a domestic partner
(including a same-sex domestic partner), or other type of visitor, as
well as their right to withdraw such consent to visitation at any time.'

"Said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (pictured):

“'Basic human rights—such as your ability to choose your own support
system in a time of need—must not be checked at the door of America’s
hospitals. Today’s rules help give ‘full and equal’ rights to all of us
to choose whom we want by our bedside when we are sick, and override
any objection by a hospital or staffer who may disagree with us for any
non-clinical reason.'”

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